HOW IT WORKS

You pay into the SantaThing system (between $15–$50), and pick your favorite bookseller. We match you with a LibraryThing member, and you play Santa by selecting books for them. Another Santa does the same for you, in secret. LibraryThing does the ordering, and you get the joy of giving AND receiving books!

Sign up once or thrice, for yourself or someone else.

Even if you don’t want to be a Santa, you can help by suggesting books for others. Click on an existing SantaThing profile to leave a suggestion.

Every year, LibraryThing members give generously to each other through SantaThing. If you’d like to donate an entry, or want to participate, but it’s just not in the budget this year, be sure to check out our Donations Thread, run once again by our fantastic volunteer member, mellymel1713278.

IMPORTANT DATES

Sign-ups close WEDNESDAY, November 28th at 12pm EST. By Wednesday evening, we’ll notify you via profile comment who your Santee is, and you can start picking books.

You’ll then have a week to pick your books, until THURSDAY, December 6th at 12pm EST. As soon as the picking ends, the ordering begins, and we’ll get all the books out to you as soon as we can.

WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR?

Every year we tweak SantaThing a little. This year, we’re thrilled to be partnering with Print as our official local SantaThing store once again. Print is a great indie bookstore located in Portland, ME (not far from LibraryThing HQ!). Other new additions: Amazon.de has expanded their free shipping options, which is good news for all. Sadly, Audible still doesn’t allow for the gifting of individual audiobooks. I know that was a big disappointment last year. If you’d like audiobooks, be sure to say so in your SantaThing profile, and your Secret Santa can select CD copies of those from your store of choice.

Just like last year, the Kindle option is available to all members, regardless of location. So long as your Kindle is registered on Amazon.com (not .co.uk, .ca, etc.), you can elect to receive your SantaThing gifts as Kindle ebooks. See more information about Kindle and SantaThing here.

SHIPPING

Some of our booksellers are able to offer free shipping, and some are not. Depending on your bookseller of choice, you may receive $5 less in books, to cover shipping costs. You can find details about shipping costs and holiday ordering deadlines for each of our booksellers here on the SantaThing Help page.

There are still 506 people listed as “unpicked”. I didn’t sign up, but can I still send a book to one of these people? I don’t mind not getting a book myself. It’s just such a great idea and I only noticed it today.

I wasn’t really paying attention and missed out this year (my bad). I don’t know how you choose the bookseller list, but any chance Books-A-Million (http://booksamillion.com) can be added for next year? I’ve decided to center my “Save a local chain bookstore” religion on them. I’ve not found a suitable small book shop for my “Save a local independent bookstore” religion yet…